The field of this invention relates to wireless communication units, transmitter architectures and circuits for providing a power supply. The invention is applicable to, but not limited to, power supply integrated circuits for linear transmitter and wireless communication units and a power amplifier supply voltage method therefor. A primary focus and application of the present invention is the field of radio frequency (RF) power amplifiers capable of use in wireless telecommunication applications.
Continuing pressure on the limited spectrum available for radio communication systems is forcing the development of spectrally-efficient linear modulation schemes. Since the envelopes of a number of these linear modulation schemes fluctuate, these result in the average power delivered to the antenna being significantly lower than the maximum power, leading to poor efficiency of the power amplifier. Specifically, in this field, there has been a significant amount of research effort in developing high efficiency topologies capable of providing high performances in the ‘back-off’ (linear) region of the power amplifier.
Linear modulation schemes require linear amplification of the modulated signal in order to minimise undesired out-of-band emissions from spectral re-growth. However, the active devices used within a typical RF amplifying device are inherently non-linear by nature. Only when a small portion of the consumed DC power is transformed into RF power, can the transfer function of the amplifying device be approximated by a straight line, i.e. as in an ideal linear amplifier case. This mode of operation provides a low efficiency of DC to RF power conversion, which is unacceptable for portable (subscriber) wireless communication units. Furthermore, the low efficiency is also recognised as being problematic for the base stations.
Furthermore, the emphasis in portable (subscriber) equipment is to increase battery life. To achieve both linearity and efficiency, so called linearisation techniques are used to improve the linearity of the more efficient amplifier classes, for example class ‘AB’, ‘B’ or ‘C’ amplifiers. A number and variety of linearising techniques exist, which are often used in designing linear transmitters, such as Cartesian Feedback, Feed-forward, and Adaptive Pre-distortion.
Voltages at the output of the linear, e.g. Class AB, amplifier are typically set by the requirements of the final RF power amplifier (PA) device. Generally, the minimum voltage of the PA is significantly larger than that required by the output devices of the Class AB amplifier. Hence, they are not the most efficient of amplification techniques. The efficiency of the transmitter (primarily the PA) is determined by the voltage across the output devices, as well as any excess voltage across any pull-down device components due to the minimum supply voltage (Vmin) requirement of the PA.
In order to increase the bit rate used in transmit uplink communication channels, larger constellation modulation schemes, with an amplitude modulation (AM) component are being investigated and, indeed, becoming required. These modulation schemes, such as sixteen-bit quadrature amplitude modulation (16-QAM), require linear PAs and are associated with high ‘crest’ factors (i.e. a degree of fluctuation) of the modulation envelope waveform. This is in contrast to the previously often-used constant envelope modulation schemes and can result in significant reduction in power efficiency and linearity.
To help overcome such efficiency and linearity issues, a number of solutions have been proposed. One technique used relates to modulating the PA supply voltage to match the envelope of the radio frequency waveform being transmitted by the RF PA. Envelope modulation requires a feedback signal from the PA supply to one of the control ports of the amplifier. Proposed solutions that utilise envelope modulation include envelope elimination and restoration (EER), and envelope tracking (ET). Both of these approaches require the application of a wideband supply signal to the supply port of the PA.
It is known that the use of PA supply RF envelope tracking may improve both PA efficiency and linearity for high peak-to-average power (PAPR) high power transmit conditions. FIG. 1 illustrates a graphical representation 100 of two alternative techniques; a first technique that provides a fixed voltage supply 105 to a PA, and a second technique whereby the PA supply voltage is modulated to track the RF envelope waveform 115. In the fixed supply case, excess PA supply voltage headroom 110 is used (and thereby potentially wasted), irrespective of the nature of the modulated RF waveform being amplified. However, for example in the PA supply voltage tracking of the RF modulated envelope case 115, excess PA supply voltage headroom can be reduced 120 by modulating the RF PA supply, thereby enabling the PA supply to accurately track the instant RF envelope.
It is known that switched-mode power supply (SMPS) techniques may be used to provide improved efficiency. An SMPS is an electronic power supply that incorporates a switching regulator in order to be highly efficient in the conversion of electrical power. Like other types of power supplies, an SMPS transfers power from a source, such as a battery of a wireless communication unit, to a load, such as a power amplifier module, whilst converting voltage and current characteristics. An SMPS is usually employed to efficiently provide a regulated output voltage, typically at a level different from the input voltage. Unlike a linear power supply, the pass transistor of a switching mode supply switches very quickly between full-on and full-off states, which minimize wasted energy. Voltage regulation is provided by varying the ratio of ‘on’ to ‘off’ time. In contrast, a linear power supply must dissipate the excess voltage to regulate the output. This higher efficiency is the primary advantage of a switched-mode power supply. Switching regulators are used as replacements for the linear regulators when higher efficiency, smaller size or lighter weight power supplies are required. They are, however, more complicated, their switching currents can cause electrical noise problems if not carefully suppressed, and simple designs may have a poor power factor.
FIG. 2 illustrates graphically 200 output power (Pout [dBm]) 205 versus input power (Pin [dBm]) 210, various functional and operational advantages that can be achieved when a PA supply (drain) voltage is modulated to use an envelope tracking technique. By enabling the PA (drain) supply voltage to track the instant RF envelope 115, the PA may be kept in modest compression at constant gain 215 over the range of the amplitude modulation to amplitude modulation (AM-AM) curves 220. Such tracking of the supply voltage of the instant RF envelope 115 enables a higher output power capability 225 for the same linearity (using envelope tracking) to be achieved by the transmitter, as compared to techniques that do not allow the PA supply voltage to track the instant RF envelope of the PA. In addition, the envelope tracking graph 200 may also be viewed as being able to support a PA gain reduction when employing ET 230, as compared to an architecture that considers PA gain with a fixed supply. A skilled artisan will appreciate that this is predominantly a consequence of PA characteristics together with a function of the operation point of the PA under the chosen operating conditions for envelope tracking.
Thus, and advantageously, the gain of the PA that may be achieved when envelope tracking is implemented may be reduced 230 as compared to the PA gain that uses a fixed PA supply voltage. Envelope tracking may also support a high efficiency gain potential for high PAPR conditions. In addition, the PA may operate at a cooler temperature for the same output power, thereby reducing heat loss and increasing efficiency. However, it is also known that envelope tracking requires a high efficiency, high bandwidth supply modulator and accurate tracking of the RF envelope is therefore difficult to achieve in practical implementations.
FIG. 3 illustrates graphically 300 envelope spectral density (PSD (V2/100 KhZ)) 305 versus frequency 310 required when a PA supply (drain) voltage is modulated using an envelope tracking technique. FIG. 3 further illustrates graphically 350 a corresponding integrated amplitude modulated power 355 versus frequency 360. Envelope spectral density exhibits a number of common features for different modulation cases, for example, a low-frequency region, which contains the majority of the energy, and a high-frequency region, which must be reproduced up to, say, 4-8 MHz. As illustrated, the two energy regions are separated by a region, covering a range of roughly 10 kHz-400 kHz, which contains little energy.
Thus, a need exists for improved power supply integrated circuits, wireless communication units and methods for power amplifier supply voltage control that use such linear and efficient transmitter architectures, and in particular a wideband power supply architecture that can provide a supply voltage in a power efficient manner.